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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902432">The Witch on the Corner</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/VengeSim/pseuds/VengeSim'>VengeSim</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Life Is Strange (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Falling In Love, Magic, Starts off light, Time Fuckery, Witchcraft, Witches, gets a little darker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:28:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/VengeSim/pseuds/VengeSim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the abandoned house on the corner of the street there lived a witch.</p><p>Her name was Max.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, Rachel Amber/Chloe Price</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>75</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Abandoned House</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You’re just chicken,” Victoria Chase said, a sneer spreading across her cherub face.</p><p><br/>“I ain’t no chicken,” Chloe said with the furor and conviction only a seven year old can muster.</p><p><br/>“Prove it,” Victoria said with a smile as Dana and Taylor looked on. </p><p><br/>Chloe glanced up at the old abandoned house. It wasn’t as scary as it looked, Chloe was sure. It’s broken windows stared back down at her, judging her just as surely as the other girls. Chloe narrowed her blue eyes at it.</p><p><br/>Chloe was not a chicken. She’d picked up a spider just last week and calmly walked it out the house when even her mom had been too scared to touch it. Her dad had called her very brave and her dad never lied, so that was that.</p><p><br/>She had, however, promised to come right home after school. She wasn’t supposed to break promises, that was one of the worst things a person could do, everyone knew that. And going into abandoned houses was definitely not coming right home. </p><p><br/>She wasn’t chicken. She’d just made a promise.</p><p><br/>“She isn’t going to do it. I told you Taylor,” Victoria said. She paused, making sure Chloe was looking at her. “She’s too chicken.”</p><p><br/>“Am not!” Chloe said and all manner of promises vanished from her mind. She would explain herself to her dad later, he’d understand. She was the oldest and tallest, the other girls were supposed to respect her. </p><p><br/>Chloe took one step towards the house and Victoria went dead silent. Chloe locked eyes with her and poured every measure of venom her small body could muster. Then she whipped around, her blond hair briefly forming a halo around her head, and marched up to the door of the abandoned house and put her hand on the handle.</p><p><br/>Chloe was surprised when the door swung open. She had expected it to be locked or jammed, but it opened without even a creak. Something like fear crept into Chloe’s stomach, but of course it was not fear. Chloe wasn’t a chicken. </p><p><br/>Chloe looked back at the girls on the sidewalk. Every eye was on her. She steeled herself and walked into the abandoned house.</p><p><br/>Chloe’s first thought was that she was rather unimpressed. She wasn’t sure what abandoned houses were supposed to look like, but she was sure this wasn’t it. Everywhere she looked, and she could see a fair bit from the front door, was completely bare. There was no furniture, no creepy paintings, not even a cobweb. There were some dark stains, but stains weren’t scary.</p><p><br/>Her second thought was that Victoria had been pretty vague with her dare. Go into the abandoned house she’d said and Chloe had done just that. She was inside. Dare complete. </p><p><br/>She was just about to turn around and leave when a loud bang came from upstairs. Chloe jumped and she heard Dana yelling “Are you okay?” from down by the sidewalk. Chloe glanced down towards the girls and then back up at the ceiling.</p><p><br/>It really wasn’t scary inside the old house. It wasn’t even dark, the large windows that had seemed so scary from the outside let in more than enough sunlight. They didn’t even look broken from the inside. She didn't think a ghost would be hiding in here, it wasn’t nearly dark or spooky enough. And when she heard a loud bang at home it always just turned out to be Bongo, her cat, knocking something over. And if it was a cat here maybe her dad would let her keep it. After all, Bongo probably got lonely while Chloe was at school.</p><p><br/>Chloe turned and walked over to the stairs. She paused a moment, listening for more sounds, but didn’t hear anything. So Chloe started up the stairs. She was impressed with how utterly unremarkable they were. Her stairs at home squeaked more than these did. </p><p><br/>The stairs ended at the beginning of a hallway lined with rooms. Chloe was deciding which room to go into when a slight noise brought her attention to the second room on the right.</p><p><br/>Visions of cats circling her head, Chloe wandered down the hallway and opened the second door on the right.</p><p><br/>It was entirely empty.</p><p><br/>Chloe crinkled her eyebrows in confusion and walked inside. There was nothing in the room, not even furniture for something to hide behind. Disappointed, Chloe turned to walk back out of the room.</p><p><br/>Which was when she saw the small girl standing directly behind her. </p><p><br/>She was, there could be no doubt, a witch. She had a pointed hat, a long brown dress, and dark boots. The witch gasped. Chloe screamed.</p><p><br/>“Sorry!” The witch said quickly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”</p><p><br/>“Well what did you expect to happen sneaking up on someone like that?!” Chloe asked as she caught her breath. She wasn’t scared anymore. Girls weren’t scary, even if they were a witch. And this one was even less scary than Victoria. She had a narrow face, pale blue eyes, and freckles across her nose. Nothing scary about that.</p><p><br/>“I just wanted to say hi,” the witch continued.</p><p><br/>“Hello,” Chloe replied and then asked. “Why are you a witch, practicing for Halloween?” </p><p><br/>“No, I always dress like this,” the witch said.</p><p><br/>“What, even when you go to school? Your parents let you dress like that? My mom won’t even let me wear rainboots to school unless it’s raining.”</p><p><br/>“I don’t go to school,” the witch replied helpfully.</p><p><br/>“Lucky,” Chloe muttered. “What are you doing in this old house?”</p><p><br/>“I live here,” the witch said.</p><p><br/>“Nobody lives here,” Chloe said.</p><p><br/>“That’s just what my parents want people to believe. We’re not supposed to let anyone know we’re here.”</p><p><br/>“Then why are you telling me?” Chloe asked. The witch shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the contradiction. </p><p><br/>“Well they’re not home and I was feeling lonely. You won’t tell them will you?” The witch asked. Chloe shook her head.</p><p><br/>“I won’t tell them,” she assured the witch. Chloe didn’t know who the witch’s parents were so she couldn’t tell them.</p><p><br/>“Good,” the witch said happily. She looked younger than Chloe, though it was hard to tell with her ridiculously large hat.</p><p><br/>“This your room then?” Chloe asked, looking around at the empty space again. </p><p><br/>“Yes, want to see it?” The witch asked, which seemed a strange question to Chloe considering she was already looking. She told the witch this.</p><p>"I'm already looking at your room."</p><p><br/>“No silly, it’s hiding right now,” the witch responded as if this should be obvious. It wasn’t.</p><p><br/>“How can a room hide?” Chloe asked.</p><p><br/>“Magic,” the witch said and she waved her hand and suddenly the empty room was anything but empty. Book shelves appeared along the walls, a desk with a burning candle settled in the corner, and a large bed full of strange stuffed animals flopped down behind the witch. Chloe’s eyes went wide.</p><p><br/>“How did you do that?!” Chloe asked as she whipped around, taking everything in.</p><p><br/>“I’m a witch,” the witch said.</p><p><br/>“No you aren’t,” Chloe told her. “There’s no such thing as witches. My dad told me so,” Chloe said. He’d told her after she couldn’t sleep for three straight nights after watching Hocus Pocus with him last Halloween.</p><p><br/>“That’s what everybody thinks, but it isn’t true. Want to meet Captain?” The witch asked as she pulled a strange looking teddy bear off her bed. Chloe wanted to argue with her, Chloe’s dad was never wrong, but she was wearing that hat and she did just make an entire room appear from nowhere. Chloe shrugged. Maybe there were some things her dad didn’t know.</p><p><br/>“Hello Captain, my name’s Chloe,” Chloe said to the bear.</p><p><br/>“My name’s Max,” the witch said, her pale eyes looking at Chloe from behind her teddy bear.</p><p><br/>“Hello Max,” Chloe said. Max’s face broke into a wide smile.</p><p><br/>“Will you be my friend?” Max asked.</p><p><br/>“Yeah,” Chloe said. “Of course.” Chloe didn’t think Max’s smile could get any wider. She was wrong.</p><p><br/>“Chloe!” A voice suddenly called from outside, barely audible through the window. </p><p><br/>“Who’s that?” Max asked.</p><p><br/>“Oh crap, that’s my friends outside. They’ll be wondering where I am.”</p><p><br/>“You have other friends?” Max asked, sounding sad for some reason.</p><p><br/>“Eh, kinda, they’re just kids I walk home with. We all get off the bus together.”</p><p><br/>“Oh,” Max said.</p><p><br/>“Anyway, I should probably get going. I need to be home anyway.”</p><p><br/>“Yeah,” Max said. Chloe started towards the door. </p><p><br/>“Will I see you again?” Max asked before she left.</p><p><br/>“Of course,” Chloe said with a smile. “I’m your friend right? I’ll ask my parents if I can stop by your house tomorrow and play.”</p><p><br/>“Tomorrow?” Max asked hopefully.</p><p><br/>“Yeah, same time okay?” Max, the witch, nodded and gave Chloe a smile, which Chloe returned, and then Chloe raced out towards the stairs.</p><p>“Tomorrow,” Max said to her teddy bear. </p><hr/><p>“How was school today champ?” William asked his daughter as she sat down for dinner. Chloe shrugged.</p><p><br/>“It was school,” Chloe said, dismissive of the very idea. William frowned, a little bit surprised. He glanced over at Joyce who shrugged as well. He was sure Chloe had been excited about something when he got home. She was a very excitable girl, his Chloe, but she had seemed extra animated today.</p><p><br/>“And nothing interesting happened?” William asked as he forked some chicken and put it on his plate. He’d joked with Joyce that marrying her was going to make him fat, she was too good of a cook. Six years later and the extra twenty pounds were so far proving his prediction correct.</p><p><br/>“Naut ot shool,” Chloe said, her mouth full of mashed potatoes.</p><p><br/>“I didn’t know they they started foreign language this early,” William remarked, getting a laugh from Joyce.</p><p><br/>“Dad!” Chloe yelled, spewing bits of potato across the table. </p><p><br/>“What’s that? Can’t understand you,” William said innocently. Across from him Joyce sighed in feigned irritation.</p><p><br/>“Chew your food before talking honey,” Joyce said and Chloe rolled her eyes and made a big show of swallowing what was in her mouth.</p><p><br/>“I said not at school,” Chloe said again.</p><p><br/>“Much better,” William said. “Where then?”</p><p><br/>“On the way home. I made a new friend!” Chloe said, clearly pleased with herself.</p><p><br/>“One of the girls you walk home with?” Joyce asked as William took the opportunity to eat some mashed potatoes of his own.</p><p><br/>“No, they’re a bunch of stuck-up stupid heads. Well except Dana,” Chloe said.</p><p><br/>“Swear jar,” Joyce said warily.</p><p><br/>“What?!” Chloe protested. “Stupid isn’t a swear word.”</p><p><br/>“That’s two,” Joyce remarked.</p><p><br/>“You won’t win this argument, trust me,” William whispered to her. Chloe threw her hands over her head in exasperation, but got up. She paused and then walked over to William, shooting a covert glance at Joyce which Joyce pretended not to see.</p><p><br/>“Dad,” she whispered as she got near. William leaned over.</p><p><br/>“Yeah,” he said.</p><p><br/>“Can I have a couple dollars.”</p><p><br/>“What happened to your allowance?” he asked.</p><p><br/>“Spent it.”</p><p><br/>“On what?”</p><p><br/>“Fruit snacks at school.”</p><p><br/>“Solid choice,” he said and pulled out his wallet. He dug a couple dollars out and handed them to Chloe who stalked over to the swear jar on the counter. Joyce smiled and William shrugged. </p><p><br/>“Seven years old and she’s already asking for money,” William said.</p><p><br/>“Just you wait,” Joyce remarked.</p><p><br/>“So who’s your new friend then?” William asked as Chloe sat back down.</p><p><br/>“Max, she’s a girl and she’s a witch,” Chloe said. William cocked an eyebrow at Joyce.</p><p><br/>“I don’t think that’s a nice thing to say about someone,” Joyce said carefully.</p><p><br/>“Oh no, she really is. She has a hat and she does magic,” Chloe said. She waved her hands around in a way that suggested they were meant to portray something, though William could only guess.</p><p><br/>“I can do magic,” William said, picking up his spoon and then pretending to smash it between his hands while he really let it roll down one of his sleeves. Chloe snorted.</p><p><br/>“Not like that, real magic,” Chloe said.</p><p><br/>“Hey, it is real magic,” William said with a pout as made the spoon ‘magically’ reappear in his hand.</p><p><br/>“And where did you meet Max?” Joyce asked.</p><p><br/>“In the abandoned house down at the corner,” Chloe said and William froze with his spoon halfway down towards his plate.</p><p><br/>“Excuse me, what are you doing going into abandoned houses Chloe?” William asked, trying to keep the alarm out of his voice.</p><p><br/>“Victoria dared me to. Anyway, Max lives inside only her parents don’t want people to know they live inside on account of them being witches I think,” Chloe said. Joyce’s eyes went so wide William thought they might fall out of her head.</p><p><br/>“Uh, champ, I don’t think…” William began, trying to think how to explain homelessness and squatting to a seven year old.</p><p><br/>“So, I was going to play with her tomorrow if that’s alright.”</p><p><br/>“No!” William said, more forcibly than he meant to. Chloe blinked in surprise, William wasn’t one to yell usually.</p><p><br/>“I just think…” Joyce began, but stopped, looking at William for help.</p><p><br/>“I just think…we should all go over together,” William said. Joyce gave him an alarmed expression.</p><p><br/>“Together?!” Chloe asked, clearly loving the idea.</p><p><br/>“Together?!” Joyce said, clearly not. </p><p><br/>“Yes, together,” William said, trying to act more confident than he felt. “I’ll just check it out. And we’ll met Max together.” Across the table Joyce looked at him with a mixture of alarm and disbelief.</p><p><br/>“I can’t wait!” Chloe said as she started back into her potatoes.</p><p><br/>“Me either…” William muttered as Joyce hurriedly pointed over at the kitchen. “One moment champ, your mom and me have to talk about something.”<br/>“Okay,” Chloe said as they walked away.</p><p><br/>“What are you thinking?” Joyce asked quietly when they reached the kitchen.</p><p><br/>“It’s probably just her imagination,” William said.</p><p><br/>“And if it’s not?” Joyce asked.</p><p><br/>“And if it’s not I’ll just take a look and see what’s going on. Chloe walks by that house every day Joyce,” William said and Joyce grew quiet.</p><p><br/>“Chloe and I will stay in the car,” Joyce said finally. “And maybe one of the neighbors can stay by their phone in case something looks wrong.”</p><p><br/>“Sounds perfect,” William said and he gave her a hug.</p><p><br/>“What am I gonna do with you?” Joyce asked against his shoulder.</p><p><br/>“Love me forever, it’s all you can do,” William said with a smile. Joyce pulled back with a snort.</p><p><br/>“Come on then, I worked hard on this supper, I’d like to actually eat it.”</p><p><br/>“Amen,” William said and they walked back out to the dining table. </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
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</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Image by me.<br/>Thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Start of Something</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a cool, bright afternoon as a group of children made the short journey from the bus stop to their individual homes. On the corner of the street, across from the bus stop, stood an old abandoned house. It was a common enough site in American Suburbia, and not at all remarkable in either oldness or abandonment, but in the minds of the children who walked by it every day it was <em>the</em> abandoned house. </p><p>The tallest and oldest of the children split off from her peers, heading across the road and toward the abandoned house.</p><p>“What are you doing Chloe?” Victoria called as she noticed Chloe split off from the group. </p><p>“I think I forgot something inside the house yesterday,” Chloe called out. Her voice didn’t even shake with the lie. She’d been practicing all morning.</p><p>“Well, we won’t wait for you!” Victoria called out.</p><p>“Okay!” Chloe replied. </p><p>Victoria stopped. Dana and Taylor looked at her, waiting to see what she would do. Victoria didn’t know. Chloe was loud and tall and bossy, but Victoria felt safer when the older girl was around. She looked down the road and saw how very far away her house looked.</p><p>“Whatever, let’s see if a ghost gets her,” Victoria said and the group of girls eagerly followed Chloe across the street, making sure to look both ways before crossing.</p><p>Chloe marched up to the front door and hesitated. Her dad had said not to go into the house until they could all go together tonight, so she wouldn’t go inside. Instead, she knocked on the door.</p><p>And waited. </p><p>“What are you doing?” Victoria called out from the sidewalk.</p><p>“I thought you were leaving,” Chloe called back.</p><p>Just then the door opened, slowly and seemingly without any person on the other end to do the opening. Behind her Chloe heard the terrified screams of Victoria, Dana, and Taylor and she turned in time to see the three take off running down the street. Chloe shrugged and turned back towards the door.</p><p>“Max?” Chloe asked.</p><p>“I’m here,” she heard the witch say, though she couldn’t see her.</p><p>“Are you hiding behind the door?” Chloe asked.</p><p>“No I’m invisdable.”</p><p>“Invisdable?” Chloe asked, trying out the strange word.</p><p>“It means people can’t see me,” Max said.</p><p>“Oh! Is it magic, like with your room?”</p><p>“Yeah!”</p><p>“Cool!”</p><p>“Are you going to come in?” Asked Max.</p><p>“No, I can’t come in to play, my dad said so,” Chloe said.</p><p>“Oh,” Max said, the word saturated with sadness. </p><p>“Don’t worry,” Chloe reassured her, “my dad’s going to bring me over later tonight! Then we can play,” Chloe said quickly. This was met with silence, which surprised Chloe. She thought Max would be excited. Couldn’t she see how much better this was?</p><p>“Your dad’s coming here too?” Max asked finally.</p><p>“Yeah, and my mom! They want to met your family or something, but the important thing is that means we’ll have a lot more time to play!” Chloe explained. Again there was a pause.</p><p>“We’d get to play a long time?”</p><p>“Yeah! Till, like, it gets dark or something.”</p><p>“Okay!” Max said with what Chloe felt was finally the correct level of enthusiasm.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll see you then! Bye Max,” Chloe said with a wave to where she thought Max might be.</p><p>“Bye,” Max the witch said as Chloe ran off down the road. Max slowly closed the door and stood there for a few moments.</p><p>“I am in so much trouble,” she said to no one in particular.</p>
<hr/><p>“What the…” William said as he parked the car across from the abandoned building on the corner of the street. Only, the abandoned house didn’t look so abandoned anymore. If William were honest with himself, which he usually was, he’d admit it now looked less abandoned than his own house did. “We drove past here just this morning, I swear it still looked like… you know.”</p><p>“It definitely didn’t look like this,” Joyce said. Then she paused. “Right?” She asked, sounding far less confident this time. </p><p>“Okay, well, this looks more promising now right? That’s good,” William said, though if it was for Joyce’s benefit or his own, he couldn’t say.</p><p>“Yeah…” Joyce said, her voice trailing off as she starred at the newly non-abandoned house.</p><p>“Wow, Max’s house looks so much nicer now!” Chloe yelled from the backseat. William and Joyce shared a look, but didn’t say anything. </p><p>“Okay, I’ll go… find out what I can,” William said and undid his seatbelt.</p><p>“Are you sure I can’t come? Why do I have to wait in the car when we’re going inside anyway?” Chloe asked, impatience oozing out of her words. </p><p>“Why Queen Chloe, I merely fear for you safety,” William said, his voice slipping into a absolutely dreadful British accent. “Allow your faithful knight to scout ahead. I hate for any danger to threaten your royal head.” Chloe glared at him, but William could see the corners of her mouth threatening a smile and he ruffled her head.</p><p>“Fine,” Chloe huffed out and sat back in her seat.</p><p>“With your leave,” William said and gave Joyce a wink before climbing out of the car and heading for the house. He walked across the street and stopped a moment before approaching the door. He took another look at the house and from this close the changes were undeniable. The windows had all been repaired, the paint looked freshly applied and there was even a doormat sitting in front of the door with a plant of some sort beside it. None of it, William knew, made any sense at all and it was with a feeling of unease that William continued on his way.</p><p>William walked up to the door, stood on the new doormat, and knocked. Immediately the door swung open and a large man with a perfectly bushy beard starred down at William. A memory of the last time William had been pulled over by the police surfaced in his mind, and the image of the officer looming above his car window seemed to match the bearing of the bearded man perfectly.</p><p>“Hello, sorry to bother you, I was just…” William began, and the man’s stern expression melted away as a warm smile split his face.</p><p>“You must be Chloe’s dad, right? Max told us you might be coming over tonight,” the man said in a voice that could have done movie trailers. Behind the man William could see warm lighting and pristinely clean floors and walls. </p><p>“Oh, yeah, uh, sorry about Chloe. I think she may have trespassed on your property but I promise…” William began, only to be interrupted again.</p><p>“Think nothing of it!” The man boomed. “I’m pretty sure my little Max let her in. We just moved here you see, and I think she’s eager to make some friends.”</p><p>“I think Chloe is too,” William said with a smile. </p><p>“So, is Chloe…” The man said, rising up and looking over William’s shoulder, perhaps expecting Chloe to be hiding behind him.</p><p>“Oh!” William said. “Yes sorry, the rest of the family is waiting in the car. No offense, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay before…” William trailed off with a shrug.</p><p>“Perfectly understandable,” the man said approvingly.</p><p>“I’ll run and grab them, back in a moment” William said and turned back towards the street.</p><p>“What’s it look like?” Joyce asked as he pulled the car door open.</p><p>“Uh, normal. Surprisingly so,” William said with a shrug.</p><p>“So we can come?!” Chloe asked excitedly. William pulled her door open with a flourish.</p><p>“All clear my lady,” William said and Chloe jumped out giggling. “One moment, wait for your mom,” William called as Chloe started running towards the house. She stopped, but started bouncing excitedly back and forth on her feet.</p><p>“Okay, let’s do this,” Joyce said as she walked around the car. Chloe screamed in excitement and started towards the house again. </p><p>“God, I hope they’re not weird,” Joyce said just loud enough for William to hear.</p><p>“Amen,” he replied.</p><p>Chloe was the first to reach the door and the bearded man smiled down at her as William and Joyce walked up.</p><p>“Come in, come in, make yourselves at home,” the man said and waved them in as he moved inside. William put his hand on Chloe’s shoulder so she wouldn’t go barreling inside and followed the man in. The inside of the house was just as immaculate as the outside. Looking at the walls William couldn’t see a single smudge of paint out of place or a single ding on the wall. An array of paintings hung on the walls as they passed into the next room and to William they looked more like diagrams than artwork. </p><p>“You moved in really quick, this place looks brand new,” William found himself saying before he could stop himself. Ahead of William the man paused slightly, but quickly resumed walking.</p><p>“We had a lot of help,” he said warmly.</p><p>“That’s nice,” Joyce said as they entered what could only be the house’s living room. Standing in the room were a woman and a little girl. The woman wore a comfortable looking dress and her straight black hair gave her face a narrow look. The girl, who William guessed could only be Max, was the oddest of the bunch. She looked cute, there was no doubt with her mess of brown hair and freckles, but Chloe had been right, she was a witch. She had the hat and everything.</p><p>“Welcome,” the man said as he reached the rest of his family and turned back towards William. He gestured at the woman beside him. “This is my wife, Vanessa Caulfield, my name is Ryan, and this,” he said as he laid a hand on the shoulder of the little girl in the witch hat.“Is our little Maxine. Don’t worry about the outfit, we encourage her to pick out her own clothes and well… this is what she likes.”</p><p>“I completely understand, we encourage Chloe to do the same,” Joyce said, doing a remarkable job of keeping a straight face. It was probably her years of experience waitressing William figured. </p><p>“No you don’t!” Chloe piped up and William broke a smile as everyone started laughing. Leave it to kids to know how to break the ice.</p><p>“William Price. That’s my name,” William said. He pulled Joyce in for a side hug. “And this is my wife Joyce. And this is Chloe,” he added as he squeezed Chloe’s shoulder.</p><p>“Why don’t we let the girls go play while we chat?” Vanessa suggested.</p><p>“Sounds perfect,” William said with a smile. Vanessa nodded and leaned down towards her daughter.</p><p>“Maxine, go ahead and take Chloe up to your room, won’t you?” She asked. </p><p>“Of course!” Max said eagerly. Before William could blink the two were out of the room, running back towards the entrance and leaving the grownups to awkwardly do what two children could in mere minutes.</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
“So why is your house all different? I can see everything now,” Chloe said as they started up the stairs.</p><p>“Dad said we’re gonna hide a different way now,” Max said. Chloe paused as they walked by what looked like the portrait of a unicorn, only it wasn’t a cute picture, and there were lots of lines pointed at various parts with words scribbled all over. Chloe decided she liked it.</p><p>“Well I’m glad I can see it. I like your house. It’s different. In a good way,” Chloe said. </p><p>“Thanks,” Max said brightly. They walked up the rest of the stairs and headed into Max’s room.</p><p>“Captain still here huh?” Chloe said as she spotted the bear on Max’s bed.</p><p>“Always,” Max said. Chloe walked over to Captain and picked him up.</p><p>“Hello Captain,” Chloe said. This close, Chloe was reminded how different Captain looked from other teddy bears. He wasn’t that furry, he wasn’t that round, and he really wasn’t that cute.</p><p>“He looks a bit different from my stuffed animals,” Chloe said, trying to sound neutral. She didn’t want to upset her new friend by saying her bear looked a little ugly.</p><p>“Someone my mom works with made him for me. Mom said he was a very special bear and that he would keep me safe,” Max said fondly. Chloe turned Captain back and forth. That made sense. Captain wasn’t supposed to look cute then, he was supposed to look scary. That, Chloe decided, was pretty cool.</p><p>“Well, I feel safer already!” Chloe said and set Captain down carefully so he would be able to see both of them.</p><p>“So what did you want to play?” Max asked. She sounded hesitant, like something about the question was scary.</p><p>“What do you usually do for fun?” Chloe asked, looking around Max’s room. There wasn’t a whole lot to play with now that Chloe thought about it. There were a lot of books, but you couldn’t really play with books.</p><p>“Magic,” Max said with a shrug. Chloe’s eyes lit up.</p><p>“Okay, let’s do that!” She said excitedly. Max’s eyes widened and she glanced back towards the door. She walked closer to Chloe.</p><p>“I’m not supposed to,” Max whispered. “Dad made me promise not to show any more people that I can do magic.” Chloe thought on this.</p><p>“Well… you’ve already shown me. So you wouldn’t be showing more people,” Chloe reasoned. Max’s eyes perked up.</p><p>“That’s true!” Max said. She broke into one of her huge smiles and Chloe was suddenly very glad she had Max as a friend. </p><p>“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Chloe said. She wanted to see magic, but she wanted to see Max much more and wouldn’t want to get Max in trouble. “We can just draw or something.” </p><p>Max put her finger up in front of her lips and shushed Chloe. She quietly tiptoed back to the door and listened for a moment. She nodded finally and her eyes light up in a way that Chloe found enormously interesting. She waved for Chloe to come and, following Max’s lead, she walked over beside Max as slowly and quietly as she could manage.</p><p>Max leaned over and whispered into Chloe’s ear. </p><p>“There’s something I want to show you.” </p>
<hr/><p>“So, Mr. Caulfield,” William began.</p><p>“Ryan, please,” Ryan interrupted amicably. They were seated now in the Caulfield’s living room. The seats were made of a carved wood that, while far finer than anything William had owned, was also far less comfortable than William’s old coach. William was pretty sure his butt was already getting sore.</p><p>“Ryan,” William said with a smile. “What brings you to Arcadia Bay? No offense, but people are usually leaving the area, not moving in.”</p><p>“A job opportunity opened up,” Ryan said. He motioned to his wife. “And Vanessa here works from home so that wasn’t a problem.”</p><p>“Well that works out nicely,” Joyce commented.</p><p>“It does!” William agreed. “Uh, sorry, what area do you work in Ryan?”</p><p>“Investigations,” Ryan said with a smile. It was friendly, but there was a finality to it, and William got the distinct feeling further questions weren’t recommended. “Vanessa works as a liaison. What about yourself?” Ryan asked.</p><p>“I’m in landscaping,” William said. “And my wife here works at The Two Whales. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will soon, best food in town.” Ryan leaned forward with a sudden interest.</p><p>“Where do you do landscaping work? Sorry for being nosy, we’re still new in town so we might be needing some landscaping in the future,” Ryan said.</p><p>“Sorry, I’m not in residential work. I just upkeep some rental properties around town. I work for the Prescotts, don’t know if you’ve heard that name before,” William said.</p><p>“Don’t think I have,” Ryan said.</p><p>“You will, trust me,” Joyce said. “They own half the town and they’re looking to buy the rest.” </p><p>“Interesting,” Ryan said with a glance at Vanessa. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind.”</p>
<hr/><p>“All witches are good at something,” Max explained as they quietly walked down the hallway. “I’m good at summoning.”</p><p>“Summoning?” Chloe asked. It was another word she’d never heard. She was beginning to suspect Max the witch was rather smart. Which, Chloe supposed, was probably on account of all the books in her room.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s like, where you call someone and they come over. Only I do it really fast,” Max explained.</p><p>“Oh,” Chloe said to indicate that she understood though she did not. She did not, however, want her new friend to think she was a complete idiot.</p><p>“And there’s a special spot up in the attic where I do it,” Max said, pointing to a ladder at the end of the hallway that led into a dark hole in the ceiling. Chloe stopped moving.</p><p>“We’re going up into the attic?” Chloe asked. Chloe remembered her attic. It was dark and full of weird things and cobwebs. It did not sound near as fun as Max’s brightly lit room.</p><p>“Yeah!” Max said, full of excitement and completely oblivious to her companion’s hesitation.</p><p>“Uhhh,” Chloe began, but Max was already at the base of the ladder and Chloe swallowed her fear and caught up.</p><p>Chloe ascended the ladder after Max, relieved Max had volunteered to go first. Chloe crawled up into the space and froze as she looked around. It didn’t look anything like her attic.</p><p>There were strange metal lines on the walls and floor, a skeleton of some sort hung from the ceiling, and  even more books lined the walls. A table in the center of the back wall held a variety of crystals and other shiny things and all of Chloe’s fear vanished.</p><p>“Wow, this is cool,” Chloe breathed out.</p><p>“Is it? It’s just my attic,” Max said.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s super cool!” Chloe said again as she rushed towards the table, her hand already itching with the need to pick up everything on it. Her foot, however, caught on something and she was sent flying forward before painfully landing face first. In a moment Max was at her side, helping her to stand back up. </p><p>“I’m so sorry, I should have warned you,” Max said as Chloe regained her footing. </p><p>“Wow, what was that?” Chloe asked as she looked around to see what she’d tripped on.</p><p>“This is the circle,” Max said as she twirled around and Chloe finally saw the dim metal circle surrounding them. “It’s where I do my summoning.” </p><p>“Wow,” Chloe said slowly, unsure what else to say. It sounded impressive.</p><p>“Okay, step outside the circle and I’ll show you,” Max said. Chloe quickly scrambled out of the circle and looked back at her small friend. Max was standing in the center by herself and Chloe suddenly felt very afraid for her friend.</p><p>“Is it dangerous?” Chloe asked.</p><p>“Mom says it is, but nothing bad has ever happened. She says that about a lot of things,” Max reassured her and Chloe was for her own mother said very similar things all the time and nothing bad ever actually did happen.</p><p>“Okay, are you ready?” Max asked and Chloe nodded though she was anything but.</p><p>Max closed her eyes and held out her hands. The circle burst into light so brilliant Chloe had to look away. A wind suddenly filled the attic and Chloe could smell pine and fresh earth. Lights started to dance around the room and as Chloe watched they formed wings that fluttered like an insect.</p><p>“Wow,” Chloe said as the wind died down. She turned back towards Max, the blinding light gone now, but the witch still glowed as dozens of the lights flitted around her.</p><p>“Are they butterflies?” Chloe asked and Max the Witch opened her eyes and started to giggle.</p><p>“No silly, they’re pixies,” Max said as if Chloe had just called a cat a dog which seemed very unfair to Chloe.</p><p>“They’re beautiful!” Chloe said, and as she said it pixies around the room flew down towards her and circled around her. This close, Chloe could make out their bodies, tiny and glowing between their large wings.</p><p>“I think they like you,” Max said as she walked over to Chloe. Chloe held out her hand and one of the pixies landed on it. It turned towards her and Chloe could swear it was studying her just as hard as Chloe was studying it.</p><p>“Hello pixie,” Chloe said and in response the little creature bowed to her. The biggest grin Chloe had ever felt burst across her face.</p><p>“I think I like them too,” she said.</p>
<hr/><p>“We move a lot for my job so we haven’t had an opportunity to put Max in any kind of school or daycare yet, so her meeting your Chloe, it means a lot to us,” Ryan was saying as Vanessa brought out tea for all of them.</p><p>“Thank you,” William said to Vanessa as he accepted his tea. It was some kind of herbal thing that didn’t smell anywhere near as good as Joyce’s coffee. </p><p>“Chloe has had some trouble making friends too,” Joyce admitted as she took her own coffee. “Sounds like the two of them are getting along though,” she remarked as a loud thud come from upstairs.</p><p>“Yes,” Ryan said, glancing up at the ceiling with a distracted look.<em> Please don’t let anything be broken.</em> William thought.</p><p>“We don’t have much experience hosting play dates,” Vanessa said as she sat down. “It’s actually kind of refreshing to met with people outside our… careers.”</p><p>“We don’t get out much either,” William said with a chuckle.</p><p>“Then, I hope I’m not being too presumptions, but I’d love to keep these little dates going in the future, as long as the girls continue to get along,” Vanessa said. William and Joyce looked at each other and shared a nod.</p><p>“I think that’d be amenable,” William said with smile and sipped his tea. It was awful.</p>
<hr/><p>All too soon it was time to go. Chloe heard her dad calling her name and Max raised a hand, said something Chloe didn’t understand, and the pixies were gone. Without their light the attic was suddenly very dark. Chloe could barely make out the outline of Max’s large hat and the girl’s steady breathing felt louder as Chloe’s ears struggled to compensate.</p><p>“I think my dad’s leaving,” Chloe said.</p><p>“Yeah,” Max said.</p><p>“Thank you Max. That was the best thing I’ve ever seen.”</p><p>“You’re welcome Chloe,” Max said. It was the first time Max had ever said her name. It made the moment even more incredible.</p><p>“I’ll see you again. Maybe next time you could come to my house, though its not as cool as yours.”</p><p>“No, I bet its just as good!” Max said because of course it would be. Chloe would be there.</p><p>“Last one downs a rotten egg!” Chloe yelled. Max had no idea what that meant, but Chloe was running for the ladder and so Max ran after, a giggle escaping from her lips.</p>
<hr/><p>“What do you think?” Ryan asked softly as he watched the Prices’ car drive off.</p><p>“Coincidence. I think it’s exactly what it looks like. Max let a little girl in because she got lonely. It was an oversight on our part,” Vanessa said.</p><p>“And how much of that is riding on the fact that you liked them?” Ryan asked with a smile.</p><p>“Well I did. Besides, did you see Maxine with Chloe? She was like a whole different person. I haven’t seen her that animated since she was three.” That was true, Max still had a smile on her face as she watched from the other window.</p><p>“This will be good for her right? We made the right choice?” Vanessa asked. Ryan sighed.</p><p>“We can’t keep her cloistered up forever.”</p><p>“And if they see anything?” Ryan was silent a long time.</p><p>“Then we do what we have to, but we have to give her a chance at something like a normal life. At least as close as we can.”</p><p>From her perch at the window Max was oblivious to the worries of her parents. The only thing on her mind was what to show Chloe next.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading everyone!</p><p>And a special thanks to dmmeeble for betaing. :D</p>
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